Can anyone apply for MAVNI if his/her asylum decision has not been made. Although after filing asylum still maintaing F-1 status. what happens if MAVNI enlist his/her name. While filing citizenship after the training, will USCIS red flags it and is there chance to get remove from MAVNI and eventually get deported.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

A person who is in valid F-1 status and has been for two years is eligible for MAVNI. If you have applied for asylum and are still maintaining your valid F-1 status, you are eligible for MAVNI--but don't expect your military recruiter or anyone else not expert in US immigration laws to understand this. Your situation is complicated and I recommend you get yourself a good immigration lawyer who can find out the facts of your case and guide you through the process. An application for asylum should not affect your eligibility for US citizenship through MAVNI unless you lied or committed fraud or otherwise demonstrated bad moral character in filing for asylum--but that said, this message board is not a place to get legal advice about complex US immigration laws. Go see a good lawyer.

what is MAVNI?

A NBA team that is in Dallas called Dallas Mavericks in short MAV, and yaas lai maya garera MAVNI bhaneko hola

@thukka
lol,

thelamas,
I think most people in the sajha are little bit unaware of mavni program so I think its better to join mavni group in facebook and ask the same questions.You will get lots of helpful response from army recruiter and fellow mavni applicants.

From your question Im pretty sure you dont have enough idea about mavni processing.Before you go for any futher processing the first step in mavni is you have to submit all your legal documents to the recruiter which are your Valid driver licence, SSN, I20 ,I94, passport (valid), copy of your visa(if it is expired doesn't matter)your pre asvab test score( math and english test you give it to the recruiter station). After that your recruiter send the copies of your documents to USCIS to check your legal status.Once USCIS verify and approve your status then only you can go for further processing otherwise they will decline your application at the very beginning.

MavniExpert is saying that you have to be in F1 status to join the US army through Mavni program ,he is absolutely wrong .These status people can join Mavni

Program Criteria:
1. Individuals must be in one of the following categories at the time of their enlistment:
Non-immigrant categories E, F, H, I, J, K, L, M, O, P, Q, R, S, T, TC, TD, TN, U OR V
Asylee, refugee, Temporary Protected Status (TPS)

Source: http://www.goarmy.com/content/dam/goarmy/downloaded_assets/mavni/mavni-language.pdf

Since the criteria is saying even the Asylee can join the army.It looks both of your status F1 and Asylee are eligible for Mavni program.
Hope this helps!!

This answer is an example of someone not bothering to read what the original poster wrote. The original poster said he was an F-1 who had applied for asylum. He's not an Asylee. An asylee is someone who has been granted asylum. An asylum applicant is NOT eligible for MAVNI. MAVNIexpert's answer is correct, yours is not. And yes, there are lots of other statuses that qualify for MAVNI , , , but the original poster does not have those. He has F-1 status, not Asylee, Refugee, O-1, TN, etc. Please before you say that someone else is wrong, read the original question. Your answer is not correct. Asylum Applicants are NOT eligible for MAVNI, only Asylees (people who have been GRANTED asylum). The original poster has a good question and one that comes up a lot, and MAVNIexpert answered it correctly. You did not.

See http://www.nationalimmigrationproject.org/Seattle2009/NLG_Materials/stock_mavni_2-22-09.pdf (asylum applicants are not eligible for MAVNI)

ExMavni,
I think you also didn't read my reply all. In the second paragraph I mentioned about how the USCIS check the status of the mavni applicant whether he is eligible or not.As long as the applicant G845 comes approved from the USCIS he will be eligible for mavni.And he is also saying that though he had applied for asylum he still has his F1 status. I have seen some of my friends who are in same situation but they already sign the contract and about to ship for training. If he had dropped his F1 status then there would have problem to get G845 approved coz USCIS wont approve for pending status .Since he is saying he has maintain his F1 status it shouldnt be any problem to get his G845 approved.

He is asking whether he will have any trouble AFTER he ships out as an F-1 student, because he has an asylum application that is also pending. And I suspect that you don't have any friends who had this situation because it can be troublesome. MAVNIexpert gave the correct answer to this question, you did not.

And I do know of a MAVNI who had trouble with this exact situation because in the person's asylum application, the person admitted to being a member of a group that was a "Tier III" group on the TRIG list. And so he was kicked out of the Army at BCT and did not get his citizenship. So this guy is right to ask his question, and you are wrong to tell him "do not worry'." He should go see a lawyer and discuss what is in the asylum application because I am sure that he does not want to talk about it on this message board.

ExMavni,
LOL , Im enjoying to read your comment coz in every other sentence you are saying "you are wrong "and you are not even providing sufficient details to prove why Im wrong.
And you are saying one of your knowing person got kicked out from BCT and didnt get citizenship coz of asylum application.

Once you sign the contract army wont let u ship until your SSBI (Single scope background investigation) investigation (which is for top clearance) is cleared. Usually it takes 3 months to finish that investigation.FBI does this investigation. They interview with the Future soldier and to his/her friends .They check all your records, background history. IF THEY FOUND ANY ISSUES ON FUTURE SOLDIER THEY WONT LET HIM/HER TO SHIP OUT.
Just wondered how someone could be kicked out of BCT if his SSBI is completed.

A couple of reasons . . . The SSBI investigators do not know anything about immigration and asylum law and they cleared him to go to BCT but then USCIS (a different agency) figured out that he was a member of a Tier III group. The SSBI investigators don't have a list of the Tier III groups. Second, sometimes the Army was letting MAVNIs ship before the SSBI was completed. They stopped doing this recently, but they were doing this up until a couple of months ago.

Anyway, this guy is right to ask the question, and he should go see a lawyer. He could clear the SSBI and ship out and then there could be a problem with his citizenship application if there is some issue with his asylum application. He also might not want to withdraw the asylum application because MAVNIs do get kicked out of BCT, and he may need the asylum application to fall back on if he gets kicked out of BCT. Some recruiters have been telling people like him to withdraw their asylum applications but that is not good advice, either.

I know more than one person who has had problems with this issue. I just mentioned the one guy because it is an obvious example.

I don't think SSBI will get cleared if there are some issues in his immigration status.Probably they used to ignore it before but I dont think they do it anymore. coz when I was having my SSBI, the investigator asked me to give him the copy of my spouse I20 to check her status.If any enlistee is married to illegals they wont let him ship out.
Yea sometimes army will let Mavni to ship out but they have to stay in reception until the investigation is completed.If someone get kicked out from reception coz of ssbi might happen but kicking out from BCT coz of asylum application is unlikely to happen.

He already explained that he does not have any problem with his status. He is in valid F-1 status.

On the unauthorized spouse issue--they changed that rule a few months ago. MAVNIs with unauthorized spouses can enlist. This was in the newspaper back in November and December.

Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts!! I must make wise decision before my shipping date. Option 1 take risk and join army. Option 2 wait for asylum decision until shipping date. Option 3 notify recruiter to postpone shipping date or Option 4 just quit army and continue F-1..

What would you guys suggest?

Thanks everyone!!!

I would suggest you go see a lawyer and discuss your case with a lawyer so the lawyer can tell you whether your asylum case is any good. It is not a good idea to make life decisions based on what a bunch of random people on a website think. None of us know anything about your asylum case, and it is none of our business. We also don't know anything about you, and nobody here knows if you would be a good soldier.

Go discuss your asylum case with a lawyer. If it is a good asylum case, you probably have nothing to worry about. If it is a bad asylum case, then you could have problems. Only a lawyer who does asylum cases can tell you if it is any good.